Social Justice as Conceptual and Practical Thread: Problems of Practice in Elementary Teacher Education

• In Event: Teacher Education as a Lever for Equity and Social Justice

Abstract

This paper explores problems of practice that arise when an elementary teacher education program makes efforts to integrate a social justice orientation beyond standalone “diversity” courses and throughout all courses and field experiences. Each author shares a narrative description of one such problem that we then analyze using a “dilemma case” protocol. We present a dilemma case analysis that cuts across the narratives, inviting readers to join in critical dialogic re/viewing of our stories from multiple angles and toward a common goal of justice-oriented teaching. Collective dilemma case analysis has allowed us to identify “pressure points” in our teacher education program that illuminate tensions between what we believe we are doing and what our teacher candidates experience, understand, and enact.

Authors

• Jana LoBello, University of Minnesota

• Ann Mogush Mason, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Sara K. Sterner, University of Minnesota

• Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr, Saint Paul College